Chinese US Trade War Propels Gold Higher, Haven Appeal Increases

Gold’s haven appeal lifted prices for the precious metal Friday, sending it higher for the week, a day after President Donald Trump intensified a trade fight with China by announcing additional tariffs on Chinese goods.

Gold for December delivery GCZ19, +1.50% on Comex rose $18.90, or 1.3%, to $1,451.30 an ounce, with prices trading more than 2% higher than the most-active August contract settlement a week ago.

September silver SIU19, +0.37% was up by a penny, or nearly 0.1%, at $16.19 an ounce, though still set to post a loss of mover 1% for the week.

Gold saw some volatility in the wake of the monthly U.S. jobs data, jumping higher, then briefly dipping toward session lows before recovering again. The Labor Department said the U.S. economy added 164,000 jobs in July, not far off the consensus forecast of 171,000. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7%.

Separately, the University of Michigan said the final reading of its consumer-sentiment index for July was 98.4, up from 98.2 in June.

On balance, the latest jobs data aren’t likely to have any effect on the Federal Open Market Committee decision making, said analysts at ICICI Bank. “The FOMC’s concern pertains to the external environment, particularly related to ‘trade-policy’,” and with Trump announcing new tariffs “downside risks to the outlook on the economy have increased.”

- Source, Market Watch